Tag Archives: goat cheese

It’s so easy to say: the summer is just slipping and sliding by. But it is! Our crew is getting steadily smaller as the babies go off to their new homes, which is both happy and sad for us. It’s a lot quieter here, although the wild bird song in the early morning is a joyous racket these days. And as the peepers have slackened off their singing at night, I have been noticing that the grasshoppers and crickets are beginning to chime in to what I always think of as the end of summer music. For living out in the woods, we have plenty of nature’s sounds to enjoy!

Poor Twig

Things are ticking along pretty well, with the usual monkey wrench thrown in here and there. Our pretty little girl Twig had been fighting an eye infection last week, and I thought it was gone, only to have it pop back up again a few days ago. I do think that Twig has taken the loss of her sister and her two good friends, Saffron’s girls, pretty hard, so it doesn’t totally surprise me that she is a little compromised, but she does still have her mama, so I am not going to actively wean her. I am getting about 1.5 quarts from Eleganza, her mother, at each milking, so I am not complaining about sharing!

Lots and lots of beautiful milk

As for the milk and the cheese making, it is going great guns here. Going so hard, I had to freeze some milk late last week so I could take a breather for a day or so! If my cardiac rehab schedule was not three days a week in Brunswick (which is a ride in the summer traffic), I could alternate days for making more than just chevre. I did carve out some time to make some Halloumi a week or two back, and it was awesomely good. We don’t seem to be able to get it around here, so it’s a fun cheese to make from time to time. And I keep wanting to get going on aging some cheese, but have not quite gotten it together to do so. I have some plans for that, however, hopefully soon!

Our summer weather has been amazing so far. Not too many hot and humid days, and lovely cool nights. Not great for the tomato and eggplant growth, but good for sleeping and enjoying the air. And so it goes. I hope everyone is finding something to enjoy this summer!

This spring has been totally upside down and crazy. I have not gotten going with milking even though I meant to do so, weeks ago. For the moment I am milking in the afternoons. A few days ago I began separating SnowPea and Pippi from their babies right after breakfast, and after milking in the afternoon they are reunited with their brood.

View from the milkstand

I had moved the milkstand into our hay greenhouse for the winter, where we do things like hoof trimming. My old situation for milking has changed in the past year, and I wasn’t sure that this would work out. But the weather has been quite dry, so I am just pulling the milkstand out of the greenhouse and milking in the open air. Awesomely wonderful! The sky and the trees are as lovely as the milking is soothing, and it’s all coming together.

No curds in sight.

I have been doling out the frozen chevre in the past month or two, as I am down to just a few left from this past milking season. So I was very excited yesterday to get out all my cheese equipment and sanitize it up and get it ready for the first batch. I had 3 gallons of milk ready to go, so I set it up yesterday and warmed the milk, added the culture, and popped that pot under 3 towels to rest. This morning as I opened up the pot, it was a giant fail. No curds in sight. Mama mia! I was counting on this batch as the first one of the year (some of which I was intending to take on our yearly outing to Vinalhaven island, next Thursday). OMG. Phage or what? Culture that was too old, or did I not drain the milk pot enough after sanitizing? I left that pot on the counter for at least 2 hours, and I stirred it and pondered it for that whole time, in between other activities.

This has bothered me all day, and as I was playing it through in my head yet again late this afternoon, I finally knew what the problem was. What a bird brain I am. I forgot the rennet!!! I guess it’s the curse of the first batch of the year. Just not into the routine, still. Sigh. I hope to do better.